


Light & Dark

by MrSchimpf



Category: Gilmore Girls, Grey's Anatomy
Genre: (LOL this is a drabble sure believe that but it really was written as a drabble), Crossover Pairings, Drabble Collection, F/F, Femslash, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Romantic Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-13
Updated: 2009-08-13
Packaged: 2018-05-11 17:23:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5635456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrSchimpf/pseuds/MrSchimpf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meredith's darkness lifts unexpectedly on a trip to a small town in Connecticut.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Light & Dark

**Title: Light & Dark  
**   
Author: Nate  
**Pairing:** Meredith/Lorelai, _Grey's Anatomy_ and _Gilmore Girls_ crossover.  
**Rating:** PG-13 (mentions of Meredith's almost-death, dark and twisty themes)  
**Disclaimer:** _Grey's Anatomy_ is the property of Shonda Rhimes/Shondaland, The Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios. _Gilmore Girls_ is the property of Amy Sherman-Palladino/Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, Hofflund-Polone and Warner Bros. Television; no attempt to profit is being made.  
**Archiving:** AO3 and ff.net. Anywhere else, ask first.  
**Summary:** Meredith's darkness lifts unexpectedly on a trip to a small town in Connecticut.  
**Author's** **Notes:** This was originally written as part of a LiveJournal drabble challenge in August 2009 with five prompts from Danielle/UbiquitiousMixie; this is four of five.  


* * *

Lorelai hated the complications of exes. That much was pretty much obvious. Luke and Christopher, along with Max could describe how her flakiness always seemed to contribute to the undoing of a relationship.

That annoyance had driven her to stay after work to talk with a guest who had been expecting to come with her boyfriend to watch an experimental surgery down at Yale Med. However he had left in a huff in some argument about his fidelity to her two days before they left, and ended up stuck at home nursing a nasty road rash. The woman had traveled to Connecticut despite, looking for a respite.

Lorelai had found herself subtlety drawn to the woman as she settled in the front room after the surgery to go over her notes. With it being the quietest part of August, there was nobody else to check in. Incredibly bored, Lorelai decided to make conversation with the physician.

At first the conversation was stilted around the woman's hometown, with the obligatory cracks about rain, Nirvana and coffee made and not impressive at all to her. But once she introduced herself finally beyond a name in the guestbook, Lorelai felt comfortable.

"Meredith, eh?" She smiled widely at her guest. "So you're gonna save me if my brain gets all clogged up?"

"I don't appreciate your tone," she groaned. "Why do you have to be so light? My work is grave and changes lives forever. I don't know about you, but in the grand scheme of things to save a life is a sacred trust--"

"Geeze, I just asked if you'd save my life. You don't have to get all Prousty on me, Dr. Grey." She laughed, hoping the timid woman would relax. "I'm not making fun of your work. I know I'd appreciate it if I ever ended up with a tumor."

Meredith had been surprised by Lorelai's candor, and that she hadn't been able to instigate an argument like she usually did to block people out.

"I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head. "I'm just...I'm very defensive. I don't get along with new people well."

"It's OK." Lorelai laid her hand on Meredith's. "You look like you have a long night ahead of you. Aren't you here for three nights?" Meredith nodded. "Come on. I don't usually do this for my guests, but how about dinner on the house and some company? My daughter's in London and I could desperately use someone to talk to."

"I...I guess so." Meredith was evasive, afraid that bonding with the innkeeper wouldn't work out well.

She was surprisingly wrong. The two women eventually found their way up to her room and after enjoying the hearty dinner Sookie prepared, the conversation was light at first, mostly about their careers and their achievements.

Soon the talk naturally drifted towards their love lives, when they both recounted their struggles with both Luke and Derek. On the surface it might have seemed odd, as both men were different, yet the same. Luke being so singular, while Derek was driven to success, but both had that gruffness about them. Slow sips on red wine, the only time the conversation was interrupted was when Lorelai saw over the traditional 9pm changeover to third shift downstairs. Meredith took that opportunity to take a bath, which is where Lorelai found her twenty minutes later.

"Hey, you need anything?" she asked. The surgeon looked up at her, nervously.

"C-c-can you...you stay here with me tonight?" Her eyes were wide open and as she swirled the hot water around in the roomy tub she felt more at ease than she had in months.

"Dr. Grey, I have to get going--"

"This is the first time I took a bath since I almost drowned," she confessed. "One day there was this ferry accident and I ended up helping rush people. Somehow I ended up in Elliot Bay. I...I almost drowned, nearly medically dead. Since then I've had a fear of water. Even the shallowest of water. I...I can't even look at Puget Sound without having a panic attack." Tearful, she found Lorelai taking her hand. "I...I deserved to die--"

"No you didn't," Lorelai said, understanding how the woman was affected.

"But I'm a miserable mess. I'm gonna be in therapy forever. The last words I ever spoke to my mother when she was in a break from her disease were about her condemning my life and saying I never lived up to my potential. Derek and I are off once again. I don't know if I'll ever love again." Openly crying, she was expecting that the persistent innkeeper would be finally driven off, despite her invitation to stay.

Instead she was shocked as Lorelai took off her blazer, leaving her in the camisole beneath it and her skirt. Sliding off her shoes, Lorelai knew she was dealing with a woman who was unlike her in any way, seeming to be in that darkness she felt as she escaped from Hartford with Rory. She brought the woman into a hug, letting her cry.

"I don't know most of your life, Meredith, but I know that you're hurting. I'm sorry." Soothing the woman as if she was a newborn, Lorelai made it clear that her bright demeanor would be the one thing that would save Meredith from feeling miserable through her entire time in Connecticut.

Her first rule was always to never get close to a guest. But as she toweled the doctor off and helped her dress in pajamas, Lorelai knew it would be impossible to break apart her personal and work lives in that instance. They fell asleep within the bed, Meredith hugging Lorelai close for the purpose of a security blanket, thankful for the warmth of the woman who she was renting a room from.

Meredith decided to skip the surgery as Lorelai offered her a tour of the town the next day. Away from the stresses of Seattle Meredith found herself smiling at jokes the brunette made. Especially the naughty ones. She always felt dark and twisty, but at least for this time in her life she was bright and shiny.

The women never got back to the Inn that night. At Lorelai's house they shared pizza and beer, recounting their demanding childhoods and dating lives, and talked about their goals and dreams. It was then that Meredith admitted that the Emerald City wasn't right for her, and she was tired of living in the image of her mother, St. Ellis. They shared Lorelai's bed, sleeping innocently, the doctor feeling comfortable sleeping enough to stay in bed until eleven.

When Derek left her a voicemail apologizing for his behavior and she checked it as she woke up, she looked over to the sleeping local next to her. She hit the 7 button on her phone and deleted it out of existence.

As she left Hartford the next day with Lorelai seeing her off, she realized that a change of scenery was just what she needed. There was also a need to bond further with the innkeeper who went above and beyond the call of duty. Sighting Puget Sound as the plane taxied into SeaTac, her anxiety came back immediately. It heightened the moment she walked through the doors of Grace the next day and through Derek continuing to simper through the next two weeks, not willing to sit down for five minutes and talk to her.

A month later, she had solidified her resignation at Seattle Grace, driven by a need to have a friend who actually treated her as such. A week later came the word that she had a great job waiting at Yale Med. The goodbyes from Derek were bitter, and from the rest of the SGH team sort of in-between.

Surprisingly Addison was very happy for the talented woman, as she knew Lorelai from way back in 1984 when she did a summer in a Hartford private practice and gave her pre-natal care. "She makes you happy?"

Meredith nodded. "She's a pillar of strength. Her daughter is wonderful, and her eyes..." she sighed. "Is it wrong how I feel?"

"You deserve to be happy on your own terms, Grey. Enjoy Connecticut. You're never going to come back here again after a year or two."

A week later she stood in the concourse of Bradley, and found a woman wearing a too-tight green t-shirt which bared her belly and said "Reading is sexy." Her eyes lit up. After two months of calls and hopes, the cart behind her packed with bags and bags of her things, she figured that the woman who never acted her age would be there to welcome her. Running towards Lorelai, she squealed, and brought her into a bear hug, happy that a change of scenery was just what she needed.

"You borrowed a shirt from your daughter, didn't you?" Meredith rolled her eyes. "You know you wear a size too small..."

"Yeah, yeah, Dr. G, my insides will compress and all that." Looking at Meredith, she saw that her new friend was hardly the same as she was that night in the bathtub. "You don't mind staying at my house?" Smirking, she had an idea that Meredith wasn't actually on any hunt for housing in New Haven.

"Nope, not at all." Finally, she was able to touch her lips to those of the hotelier, the dark and twistiness of her life seeming to disappear in the buss. Pulling back, both women blushed. "God, I've wanted to do that...since I met you."

"Plenty of time?" Lorelai wondered as she grabbed the handle of the cart.

"I have a feeling I'm gonna love this state," Meredith declared, happy that for once, she didn't let the darkness choose for her as her and Lorelai wheeled her bags down the terminal, both women waiting to explore unfinished business.  



End file.
